Staff / Samantha M. Shal
Cliff Graubart of Dunwoody, author of "The Curious Vision of Sammy Levitt and Other Stories," organizes books for sale at the bookstore during the Book Festival of the MJCCA, Nov. 1-18.

“We entertain authors who have written a book since the last book festival with the exception [of authors who wrote] a book a year ago in hardback and it’s now in paperback,” said event co-chair Sherie Gumer.

She hopes the community will have the chance to hear from current authors writing on a variety of subjects.

“Our authors are fiction writers,” Gumer said. “They’ve written memoirs. There are some psychology-type books as well as historical-type books. We really hope that [visitors] get the opportunity to enjoy a literary event and create open dialogue on a variety of different topics that we think are of interest to the community.”

Enoch said the festival will end with a performance by entertainer Michael Feinstein who has written a book entitled “The Gershwins and Me.”

Visitors to the festival will have the chance to purchase books from featured authors at the on-site bookstore run by independent bookseller A Cappella Books.

“A portion of the sales price of the books comes back to the JCC to help our many wonderful programs,” Gumer said.

Book festival attendees can also participate in the festival’s community service project. Enoch said the center is asking the community to donate new or gently-used children’s books to Project GIVE to benefit children in shelters throughout Atlanta.

*We welcome your comments on the stories and issues of the day and seek to provide a forum for the community to voice opinions. All comments are subject to moderator approval before being made visible on the website but are not edited. The use of profanity, obscene and vulgar language, hate speech, and racial slurs is strictly prohibited. Advertisements, promotions, spam, and links to outside websites will also be rejected. Please read our terms of service for full guides